Articles of manufacture, and particularly those of electronic circuit type, incorporate many diverse subcomponents which are inserted into other components or subassemblies or are interconnected by various means into electrical circuit systems. These electrical components upon fabrication require handling in the form of storage, transportation and ultimate dispensing at the use or work station where they are incorporated in the apparatus. Electrical components such as solid-state devices invariably have connecting electrodes which frequently are in the form of relatively short wires or pins or narrow electrical strips that have little structural strength and are readily subject to distortion and bending. These electrical contacts or electrodes are frequently designed to be disposed in predetermined relationship with respect to other electrodes in the normal multiple groups of electrodes so as to interfit into a circuit board socket or connecting position, but those electrodes may not necessarily have any fixed dimensional relationship to the physical structure of the body portion of the component. Examples of such electrical components are the integrated circuit chips, capacitors and electrical coils as well as numerous types of connectors and other components, either mechanical or electrical. Utilization of these components makes it essential that they be applied to the major circuit component or subassembly such that the electrodes form an electrical circuit with the circuit system of the component or subassembly. Because of the relatively fragile nature of these electrodes, handling of the components either in storage or interim testing functions and even at the ultimate use or work station may cause bending of one or more of the electrodes such that it is not precisely aligned or oriented with respect to the other electrodes. When this occurs, then the component is difficult to install and very frequently will be inadvertently installed such that there will be less than a complete electrical interconnection, thereby resulting in a defective assembly which may or may not be repairable. In those cases where the defective assembly is repairable, the repair will obviously necessitate further expense and time to place it in a usable condition and consequent increased production cost. If not repairable, then the entire assembly may, of necessity, require complete scrapping and thus result in increased production cost.
There are known attempts to package electrical components in a manner which will eliminate or substantially reduce the problem with respect to damage to electrical contacts or electrodes and to facilitate handling. These attempts have been partially induced to enable automation of systems for the dispensing of the components at work or use stations in their application to system assemblies. An example of such a system is the packaging of components such as the cylindrical rod-type electrical resistors or flat, disc shaped capacitors on elongated flexible tapes. Components such as these resistors are provided with two relatively long electrical leads which are oriented with respect to the component to extend in axially aligned but opposite directions. A number of such components are arranged in a series with their leads disposed in spaced parallel relationship. The terminal end portions of each of the two leads are secured to respective elongated strips of tape which, with the components, form a package. In utilization of components packaged in this manner, a component is gripped by its leads by a machine at the assembly station and the leads are cut to the desired length with the marginal end portions and tape being discarded. If necessary for a particular assembly, the leads remaining with the component may be bent or formed to specific configuration for assembly. Orientation of the lead is not a problem since the item is gripped by its leads and is thus in a proper orientation. While these tape systems have been found useful in automating assembly operations, these papar tape systems are limited in usefulness to items such as or similar to the resistor or capacitor elements which do not exhibit the problems of orientation and alignment of their electrode leads as is associated with the integrated circuit chips that are designed to be installed in printed circuit boards.
Automation in manufacturing has received initial motivation as a consequence of direct labor costs involved in the heretofore conventional assembly line type operations. While that labor cost remains significant, there are other factors that contribute to the total cost of a manufacturing or assembly operation. These other factors are packaging, storage and transport of the components, subcomponents, or even subassemblies, prior to their utilization at an assembly station. In many instances, there is a requirement for additional handling between the components' initial fabrication and packaging and ultimate utilization such as testing of components for functional operation. Failure to perform such testing prior to assembly with other components will result in defective products which results in inceased production costs regardless of whether a defective unit may be repairable. There is a further important factor in effecting automation of a manufacturing system and that is the inventory and scheduling of the components to an assembly station in coordination with other components to that same assembly line or operation. Economics of automation require computer control of a complete manufacturing system and component packaging thus plays an extremely important role in achieving the objectives of enabling components to be efficiently handled throughout an entire automated manufacturing system. The economics of the manufacturing process dictate that packaging of the components, or subassemblies, must be capable of automatic machine handling at all stages. Loading of components into a package, package storing and transport and delivery or dispensing of the components must be capable of being accomplished without manual operations to enable the computer controlled operations that are an economic necessity.